Dive N Duck

The TADPOLE control room was quiet as they attempted to follow the power readings they'd picked up on Haiti. Their progress was slow for the TADPOLE, going no more than continental distances southbound.

“Watch out!” Val shouted though she didn’t know why.

Honorr slammed into the console and fell, gasping for air. Fisian flew into the wall behind her, her quick grip on the console insufficient. Only Val was saved from impact with the TADPOLE’s suddenly stopped surfaces by finding neutral space in midair. She grabbed the console and yanked herself toward Honorr as the wall previously beside her seemed to buckle inward, to change shape, to divide.

“NDM!” she shouted unnecessarily, covered her mouth to keep from shouting again in panic, and reached into the Unreal. It was an insanely dangerous thing to do, leaving her body vulnerable; but being weaponless with NDM aboard was insane, too, and she had no intention of allowing either condition to last. Valorie had also practiced this shift for just such circumstances.

Hands and head were enough. Val was looking around even as the arsenal vision formed around her. With both hands, she grabbed at the most powerful weapons she saw. At first there was nothing actually available to grab but with practiced care she cupped her hands around the image of the weapons with her equally imaginary hands, as if both were real. Then she demanded that they be more real: shape, texture, form, weight. she held the vision firm. Material, substance, hardness, power, she insisted of the Unreal, then grabbed a blade in her teeth and yanked out.

The weapons in her hands flew toward her companions, her aim slightly off from her turn in the Unreal, unmatched by her resting body. Honorr caugh his with a finger tip, then with both hands as it tumbled, fired even as Fisian reached hers. Light and sound spattered again and again against the bulk of the monoliths. Unslowed, they swung their arms in a slow-looking arc that could kill. Several more shots from the powerful weapons and finally one paled, weakened.

Val ducked the swing of another and thrust with the sword. A shock of impact stabbed up her own arm, the wepon barely scratching the thing’s surface as Honorr fired again. His energy shot hit the sword, sent its power down the blade and into the NDM. It sparked, paled, paled further still to an ash gray, and cracked with a sound like granite scraping pebbles. It froze, a featureless figure of stone.

The remaining unharmed one reached out to the damaged but still mobile partner. They blended, merged into the wall, and disappeared, leaving the dead rock behind.

Fisian did something to the console, “We’re following,” she warned.

“What?” Honorr bellowed in disbelief. “You think this is a tournament and we need a round two, in hell?”

#

“It’s just a version of the Unreal,” Val said as the universe rotated into chaos. “You’ve been there before.” She reached out a tentative hand as the world kaliedescoped around them in a visitor of pastel walls, sparkles, and shadow figurines not quite detailed enough to have shape or form.

“This isn’t!” Honorr complained. “The Unreal you’ve shown me has up, down, continuity. Things keep coming in and out of nowhere.”

“Things?”

“Can’t you see them? An elbow, an ear, big.”

“They’re NDMs, shifting between dimensions. We can only see the pieces in our dimensions,” Val said.

“Think of it them as being woven through space when you are looking at a woven basket, you see only the sections of each strand that come out, the alternating sections are hidden behind other strands. Just close your eyes and relax,” Fisian suggested, “as if you were laying down after drinking too much. The world swims around you, spins on its axis, flying through space a million miles a second, but you remain safe and quiet on your couch.”

“The TADPOLE console is still in front of you where it was a moment ago. You’re still holding on,” Valorie added. “The universe moves, we wove within it, but the TADPOLE moves with us.”

“Is your weapon stil in your hand?” Val asked.

“I don’t even have a hand! Nor body!”

“You have sight and a voice, therefore you have a body, even if you can’t find it. It’s all right where it was before.,” Val tried to reassure him. she herself was trying to use other senses than her eyes to find her companions among the shadowy shapes and colors.

“Are we in space?” Honorr asked.

“We are in N-Dimension non-space. Space doesn’t relate. -- I think your weapon is still in your right hand.”

Fisian offered something of an answer, “with respect to Earth it locks like we’ve gone down and down. They’re cooking up something under the Americas. Haiti was just the first test.”

“Are you thinking the usual three?”

“Three is the universal truth. The second will be bigger, the third devastating. Since they are testing so close to what has to be the fault in their effort. The third may turn out to be the real event. It will at least destroy the planet. - Val, can you get us hand weapons? Even if we could figure out how to shoot, we can’t aim them like this.”

“Just keep following whatever pieces you see and I’ll see what I can do. Knives from the kitchen if nothing else."

“If you can find the kitchen.”